July 2007

I've been negligent in my updates the last two weeks. Two weekends ago, we went out to Phelps and Canandaigua for our friends Margaux and Steve's wedding. Everything was so lovely, and you could certainly tell there was a lot of thoughtful detail put into things. I cried three times, which is the mark of a good wedding. (I am kind of a sap.)

By last Saturday, I thought my tum was on the mend but, unfortunately, that was not the case. As the day/evening went on, I felt kind of like I wanted to die. I was very upset, too, because there was filet mignon and a hoppin' dance floor, and it was all wasted on me. Boo!

Presenting the Judges!

Here is my good friend Tim (also the brother of the bride) holding flowers. I can't help but document it when I see a man holding a nice, big, pink bouquet and a purse.

This past weekend I was feeling much, much better (thankfully!). It was good timing, too, because we had a bit of a reunion with some old friends. On Saturday, we got together with the Fs (now featuring Elise), the Ls (now featuring Benjamin), the Ts (now featuring twins in utero!!), and the Hs (now featuring shiny wedding bands). It was such a wonderful night. It felt so nice to see them all and spend some time together. We only got a couple pictures from that night, unfortunately. Here are Benjamin and Greta.

And another for ya. I'm really not sure what prompted that look from Greta. That's another thing she got from me: the look of utter pissiness.

Sunday, we went to our wee friend Willem's birthday party. He turned the ripe old age of one recently, so his parents threw him a party. Here is Will and his daddy-o.

Greta loved the favors she got at the party. Here is Greta showing off one of her gifts (and her bottom molars).

Here's our cute bunny wearing a makeshift halo. She was quite an angel this weekend, so it was a much deserved accessory.

Um, and then last night, around midnight, Greta started coughing her head off and has a nasty cold. Uhh, so sorry to all you kids who shared a sippy cup with her this weekend. Our bad.

So, it is unconfirmed but I'm pretty sure Greta said hi to a prostitute yesterday. We were at that little park on Merriman, between University and Atlantic (if you're familiar with the area), and there was a woman walking around, slowly, kind of meandering around that block for an excessively long period of time. I'm gonna guess she's a prostitute, although my sincere apologies if she's not and, say, she's a fan of this site. Each time she passed, Greta would smile, cock her head to the side, and say, "Hiiii."

While I don't think we live in an area that is highly populated with prostitutes, we do live in the city, and the nature of the city is that there are all types of people. I am sure my mom is just cringing right now. Hi mom!

In other news, the search engines are going to love the amount of times I've said prostitute in this post. Prostitute. There, I said it again.

I'll give a "real" update soon. I have much better things to talk about than this.

We are going to be flying to Ohio, with Greta, in the somewhat near future, and I'm trying to avoid over packing. I'm thinking this is impossible with a young child, but it's worth a try. For you gals (and guys) who have traveled with a wee one, what are the necessities? Where we're going has refrigerator/kitchen (yes, Ohio has refrigeration now!), so we don't need to worry about food items so much as gear. Also, the rental car place is giving us a car seat to use. I'm hoping the "car seat" is not actually just a booster seat from Pizza Hut with a roll of duct tape. We'll see.

This past Saturday, my mom came into town to watch Greta while we went to a wedding. My mom stayed the night and she joined us in our Sunday routine of going to a greasy spoon for breakfast. Grandma M got a great series of pictures of Greta while we were at the lovely South Wedge Diner. Here are two of my favorites. Greta has started to crack herself up. I assure you that in these pictures she is indeed laughing at herself and not crying.

I especially appreciate Greta's sense of humor since I also often crack myself up. Heh.

Oh, and I am convinced that Greta learns more when she is away from us than when she is with us. My mom taught her to say "Maynard." It sounds more like "Mah-nerd," but I am still amazed.

This past weekend, Greta was acting rather fussy and then threw up all over both of us on Saturday. I didn't think much of it until I started feeling downright awful on Wednesday. Here it is Friday and I'm still sick. I can visibly see my stomach undulating. It is quite distressing. Anyway, so I haven't felt like doing much other than fullfilling life's basic requirements lately (and sometimes not even all of those). Thus, no recent updates for you. Sorry, something's gotta give.

This past weekend, beyond getting covered in Greta's partially digested lunch and afternoon milk, Pat's parents came to town to visit and help us with some work around the house. When we first moved into the house, we immediately noticed the "tripwire" called a railing that overlooks our foyer. In addition to the fact that the railing itself is quite low (it came just above Pat's knee), it was missing a handful of spindles. Our goal was to have the entire railing raised and fill in the missing spindles by the time Greta was crawling, but that didn't exactly happen. We basically just always carried Greta whenever we were upstairs, which worked but wasn't necessarily practical. Enter Pat's Dad: woodworker extraordinaire.

Pat had some bold ideas about how he envisioned fixing this accident waiting to happen, and I admit I may have made a few audible "pshaws." Dick Reed worked his magic, though, and they fixed that beast in about seven hours! I couldn't believe it. Behold: safety! It still needs to be painted of course, but I think it's fantastic.

While those guys were working on things, I was in charge of Greta. I let her draw on her face. And like an old Shake-n-Bake commercial, I was all, "And I helped."

Now Greta gets to walk upstairs. Hopefully she won't become drunk with freedom.

Did I mention I feel like poo? It's all I can think about. I want it to stop. Anyone have any tummy remedies? Do tell.

When I visited Greta at lunch today, one of the teachers in her room told me that Greta was "reading" the dictionary this morning during a diaper change. I'm so proud. Maybe she'll be an editor, like her Mommy, when she grows up. Or maybe she'll win the national spelling B. As long as she doesn't turn out like this kid...whose parents, by the way, should be arrested.

We had a fairly eventful weekend and we're working on some rather time-consuming home improvements this week, which equals not a lot of time to post. I do want to give a quick update, though.

Saturday we went to the first birthday party for our friend Maddie. I think Greta may have even enjoyed this party more than she enjoyed her own first birthday party. (Greta, like her Mom, may not be an enormous fan of the spotlight. Or maybe she will be. I don't want to cause any manifest destiny here or whatever. Okay, I know I used "manifest destiny" totally wrong, but I couldn't think of the right term. I'm rambling. I need to stop.)

Anyway, we all had a great time. Here's some proof.

Here is the birthday girl herself (accompanied by her lovely mom, Kimmie).

At one point, we told Greta to give Maddie a hug, which Greta looked like she might actually do (Greta can be stingy with the hugs), and there was an awkward pause and then Maddie kind of recoiled. Gotta love it.

Greta loved playing with Maddie's toys. Here she is riding a popper bike thingy.

And here she is sitting on Maddie's sweet Pooh swing.

Greta got her very own presents just for showing up. Greta: behold the beauty of the party favor!

One of her favor gifts was bubbles that smell like cotton candy!

After all of that excitement, Greta and I needed to sit down and drink some juice. Hers was apple flavored; mine was beer flavored.

Kimmie (and Greg, of course) did such a wonderful job of making things special and really kid-friendly. My favorite touch: a bowl of pre-cut weenies next to a plate of Jello Jigglers. (The food catered to adults was great too.)

And I don't mean to skim over it, but we went out to Skaneateles today to celebrate my Mom's birthday. It is well documented on video but not on film. You'll have to take my word on that. Happy birthday, Mom!

And here is one more picture for ya: Greta in her pink hoodie, camouflage pants, and, the pièce de résistance, pink high-top Chuck Taylors. What a stylish baby! She must have very stylish (and possibly very handsome) parents.

Hope everyone's 4th of July and following weekend were the cat's meow.